Neptuno e Coronis (1724) - Francisco Vieira Lusitano

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representa ...

, Corone ( grc, Κορώνη, Korṓnē, crow ) is a young woman who attracted the attention of

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ...

, the god of the sea, and was saved by

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded ...

, the goddess of wisdom. She was a princess and the daughter of Coronaeus. Her brief tale is recounted in the narrative poem ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the ...

'' by the Roman poet

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

. Several other myths surround the crow about its connection to Athena.

Mythology

Poseidon

According to

, one day as Corone was walking by the seashore, the sea-god

saw her and attempted to seduce her. When his efforts failed he attempted to rape her instead, and Corone fled from his rapacious advances, crying out to men and gods, and while no man heard her, "the virgin goddess feels pity for a virgin"; Pallas

transformed her into a

crow A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...

. An unspecified time later, she recounted her woes during a conversation with the raven, Lycius, who had grievances of his own. She also cited her resentment that her place as Athena's bird-servant was usurped and taken over by the owl, the metamorphosed Nyctimene, where the transformation was punitive. Ovid himself does not mention her by name and simply calls her ''cornix'', or "the crow", in Latin. Instead her name proper is attested by an anonymous Greek paradoxographer.

Other narratives about Athena and the crow

The relation between Athena and crows is not always amicable. In one myth, after

Hephaestus Hephaestus (; eight spellings; grc-gre, Ἥφαιστος, Hḗphaistos) is the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire (compare, however, with Hestia), and volcanoes.Walter B ...

tried to assault Athena and the infant Erichthonius was born from his semen that fell on the earth, Athena put the child in a box and gave it to the daughters of

Cecrops In Greek mythology, Cecrops ( /ˈsiːkrɒps/; Ancient Greek: Κέκροψ, ''Kékrops''; ''gen''.: Κέκροπος) may refer to two legendary kings of Athens: * Cecrops I, the first king of Athens. * Cecrops II, son of Pandion I, king of ...

, instructing them not to open the box before she returned. The maidens disobeyed her, and the crow flew to Athena bearing the news. Athena, angered over the ill news the crow brought her, cursed it to never be able to fly above the Acropolis. In an

Aesop Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales c ...

fable Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse (poetry), verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphized, and that illustrat ...

, a crow invites a dog to banquet and sacrifices to Athena. The dog remarks that this is useless, as Athena dislikes her. The crow then answers that Athena might not like her, but she will sacrifice to her nonetheless in order to make amends with the goddess. A fragment from the Hellenistic poet

Callimachus Callimachus (; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works in a wide varie ...

implies a story, not surviving, where the crow warned the owl (Nyctimene?) against tale-bearing, lamenting that the wrath of Athena is a terrible thing. The traveller

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...

wrote that in

Corone Corone ( grc, Κορώνη, Korṓnē, crow) may refer to: * Koroni, also spelled Corone, a town in Greece * Corone (crow) In Greek and Roman mythology, Corone ( grc, Κορώνη, Korṓnē, crow ) is a young woman who attracted the atten ...

, a small town in

Messenia Messenia or Messinia ( ; el, Μεσσηνία ) is a regional unit (''perifereiaki enotita'') in the southwestern part of the Peloponnese region, in Greece. Until the implementation of the Kallikratis plan on 1 January 2011, Messenia was a ...

in southwestern Peloponnese, a statue of Athena held in her outstretched hand a crow instead of the accustomed owl.

Later literature

John Gower John Gower (; c. 1330 – October 1408) was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and the Pearl Poet, and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works, the '' Mirour de l'Omme'', '' Vo ...

took up the tale for use in his ''

Confessio Amantis ''Confessio Amantis'' ("The Lover's Confession") is a 33,000-line Middle English poem by John Gower, which uses the confession made by an ageing lover to the chaplain of Venus as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems. Accord ...

'', with particular emphasis on her delight in her escape:

With feathers of a coaly black,
Out of his arms, like bolt from bow,
She flew in likeness of a crow:
And this, to her, was more delight -
To keep her maiden treasure white
Beneath a feather cloak of black -
Than, pearly-skinned, to lose and lack
What never can return again.

References

Bibliography

* * Gaius Julius Hyginus, ''Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
* * * *
Online version at Perseus.tufts project.
* in 4 Volumes. *

Publius Ovidius Naso Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

, ''